Chapter 21
We sit in the arena around the firepit and no one speaks.
I’m pressed back against my seat. I’ve never felt more unprepared.
Maybe I should have ranked Caelus last instead of being honest, just in case there’s any way my scores could be chased back to me.
But would it even matter if they are tabulating everyone’s responses?
Dreth is here this morning, staring daggers at me like I’ve done something else wrong.
When he brings the stack of scores over to the pit, he clears his throat. “The next elimination is tomorrow morning,” he says. “You will spend today and tonight taking one person on a date in Skyhaven. If you’re going to become a citizen, you should get to know what it’s like to be Skyborn.”
A quick count makes my pulse race; there are an odd number of contestants. Someone isn’t going to have a date. That can’t help chances at elimination. Maybe I should have been nicer to Kade and Orrick, or made more friends. I glare at the papers in Dreth’s hand.
“Those who rank highest get to choose their date first,” he says. “If you don’t have a date, you’re cut.”
Gasps sweep the arena, and I peer into the audience seats with the feeling again that we’re being watched. But even during the day, the recessed seating of the arena is cloaked in shadow from the curvature of the partial ceiling.
“What’s the elimination tomorrow based on?” someone who I don’t know asks.
“You have to engage in meaningful affection with someone,” Dreth says.
“What is that?” the stranger asks.
Exactly my question.
Dreth pulls Talia by the arm toward him and lays his mouth on hers. Jace tenses, and I fear if his jaw clenches any harder, he will break a tooth.
“Get off of me!” She shoves him away and smacks him across the face. Hard. Then she freezes and stares at the ground. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she mutters.
But Dreth goes on, unfazed. “That meant nothing to her or me.”
Talia shuffles back in line beside Jace.
“A convincing kiss is your surest bet to avoid being disqualified. A kiss that means something is made by more than the act of kissing. If you used your cards correctly, hopefully you have identified someone you enjoy being around. Some of you may have already kissed. I’ll remind you, the act of kissing doesn’t make it mean something.
To not be eliminated, we need to be convinced the kiss means something to at least one of you.
A long embrace is also acceptable if it appears genuine.
If you think you can fake a connection to get it past us, we will weed you out. ”
My stomach is doing all kinds of things. I should have skipped the fruit I had for breakfast. The world sways as we’re shuffled into a line to hear rankings.
“The contestant with the highest number of votes as most desirable will come forward when they hear their name and choose who they are taking on their day date. Talia.”
She lets out a shaky breath, still unable to look at Dreth.
“Your pick?” he says.
“Jace.”
“Jace, do you accept?” Dreth asks.
But he’s already beside her.
“Next, Caelus, your prince,” Dreth says.
I don’t move. Of course he was ranked high.
“I don’t think this is fair, Dreth.” As Caelus steps up to the captain of the Mercyenforcers, he puts his back to the contestants, speaking in a voice too low for us to hear.
They talk quietly for a moment, but then Dreth ends the conversation abruptly, saying, “Sir, with all due respect, you must pick. Or you will be detained. Your father’s orders. ”
Don’t pick me. Don’t pick me. Don’t pick me. I glare at him.
“Axira,” Caelus says.
The walls in the arena must be closing in.
“Do you accept?” Dreth asks.
“No!”
Caelus shakes his head at me subtly. He glances at the papers Dreth is holding—the scores. I must be ranked last.
“Yes. I meant, yes!” I drag myself to stand beside him. People whisper, watching me. Rhythe’s stare burns my skin.
“Next, Kade.”
No surprise he invites Lira on a date, and she accepts.
The longer I stand here, the more my foot taps.
Dorian is next up, and he and Mae are already paired before Dreth can get the question out.
When Ivy is called, she picks Rhythe. To my surprise, he accepts.
Irritation sets my jaw, and I can’t explain why.
Maybe it’s because he makes demands of me but is dismissive all at the same time.
Or maybe it’s because he doesn’t seem to care one bit about anyone helping him.
I don’t know what Ivy sees in him. The matching continues, with Finn and Orrick ranked dead last, after Fiona and Titus, and a girl I’ve hardly said a word to.
Contestant Thirty-One, Callie, a mousy Stonebound with short, dusty-brown hair, is called forward to make her pick. She shuffles on her feet.
“Both Orrick and Finn received the same number of votes, so it’s your pick,” Dreth tells her.
I’ve never heard this girl speak. She hesitates, and Orrick fidgets, noticeably antsy.
“Pick, Contestant Thirty-One,” Dreth says, and his harshness makes my flesh feel hot. Hot like fire.
“It’s always this way.” Orrick’s voice cuts through the dark like a knife.
“No one wants to hear your sob story,” Finn snaps. “You chose to come here. You weren’t forced to be here and suffer for it like me. Go play with your sticks, weird boy.”
Flames flicker across Orrick’s furious face, and it curdles my blood.
“Don’t talk to him that way,” I say, and it surprises even me. Caelus urges me to be quiet with just a look. But Orrick has never done anything to deserve that.
“Yeah,” Mae says, backing me up. “You don’t get to be cruel to everyone because you didn’t want to be here. That’s not our fault.”
Finn throws up his hands. “Of course you’d stick up for him.”
“Watch it,” Dorian barks, now stepping forward.
Voices rise—Mae tries to mediate, Talia says something about poking a bear, Lira says Orrick isn’t taking this seriously, Ivy is laughing like all this is a joke.
My brain scrambles. Dreth backs away from the firepit.
He and Kade share a glance, but I miss what it could mean.
Rhythe and I meet eyes; his dazzle with mirth, as if I’ve amused him. I see red. Angry, hot, burning red.
Orrick’s jaw is mean, his leg tapping more furiously.
Callie still doesn’t move, frozen at the prospect of picking someone to be disqualified, which for all we know means be trapped here and maybe never see home again.
That’s when I see it, a slight blue haze rising from the flames, almost imperceptible. On the stone edge of the pit there is an empty jar.
Prototype Scent—Rage
I stumble forward from the line, trying to get closer. The Benevolent. He’s trying to turn us on each other like wild dogs.
“Everyone, stop,” I say. But no one hears me. I reach for the jar, but Kade grabs my wrist, tight.
“Easier to climb over bodies than people,” he says, wafting the fumes toward the others. I drop the jar and snatch my arm away. A chill runs through me. He and the Mercyenforcers must know each other. From his time in their ranks. He did this.
“Come to think of it, we’d all be higher on the list if he wasn’t here.” Finn blinks long, inhaling before locking eyes on Caelus.
“Leave me out of this,” Caelus says, not moving from my side.
“Maybe I won’t.” Finn closes the distance between us in two strides. “Let’s see if the prince is as merciful as his father,” he says.
I’ve spotted Orrick, walking around the pit with clenched fists.
Several things happen at once.
Caelus shoves me back as Finn’s fist comes up fast, driving into his ribs.
Quick and clean with the precision of a fishing spear.
Caelus grunts but barrels forward, grabbing Finn by his adorned hair and slamming him into the stone pit with an audible crack.
Caelus blocks the first punch, takes the second to the jaw, then plows a sharp blow to the back of Finn’s head.
The prince shoves Finn off him, to the ground, to an audience of wide eyes.
Caelus backs away, panting with a madness glinting in his eyes. If Finn charges him again, Caelus might kill him. “Leave me.”
“You even fight like a prince.” Finn spits blood.
I charge toward Caelus and Finn. If anything happens to him, I am trapped here. Serafina and I will never be free. But I reach them too late.
A fire poker tears through Finn’s chest with Orrick on the other end.
Finn collapses, and the light leaves his eyes.
A gasp rings from the shadows, then screams thunder around the arena like a hurricane.
I can’t move. Orrick trembles, gaping at what he’s just done.
“Monsters!” The voice comes from nowhere, and my heart speeds up. I peer harder into the shaded audience area of the arena, and for the first time, I see eyes there. Faces. Skyborn. They’re watching us from the stands.
Like this is a performance.
Our misery and anger, entertainment.
But when everybody flees to the tents, it snatches me back to the present. Finn lies on the ground bleeding, as still as death. Orrick finally drops the poker, gaping. People claw their way past one another. Except Kade. He sits by the fire and slips the rage Scent into his pocket.
Kade.
I pick Kade for my truest-love match.
I want to betray him most of all.